Introducing Caleb Wade

Caleb Wade made his expedited appearance a little over twenty minutes after arriving at the hospital on Monday afternoon. He weighed 9 lbs 6 oz and was 21 inches long. He has lots of dark blond hair, just like Eliza did. He has long fingers, long feet, and a great temperament. We are loving him to pieces. Feel free to continue on and read the rest of the story (I know it's longer than the birth itself), or just skip to the pictures at the end.

Who ever heard of a baby coming on his due date? Well, our sweet Baby Bean did just that. Not long after the clock struck midnight, beginning my due date, August 171th, I started having contractions. Since I don't get any Braxton Hicks contractions, I know that when the contractions come, it's the real thing. I tried to get as much sleep as I could between contractions and getting up to go to the bathroom. I didn't wake Mike because I figured he would need all the rest he could get. If this delivery was going to be like Eliza's, we would be up late into the next night. I got up at about 6:30 and had the bowl of cereal I had been wanting all night.

It was Mike's first day of school. He started at 8am. Since I figured things would be pretty similar to my labor with Eliza, I told him to go ahead and go to the first part of orientation and call to check on me at lunch. Thankfully, my mom got into town late Sunday night, so she was there to take care of Eliza while I labored at home. Not long after Mike left, I was wishing he hadn't. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I heard the front door open and heard Mike's voice. After fifteen minutes of orientation, he felt like he should be home with his laboring wife instead of eating bagels and mingling with his fellow students. He had no idea then what an important decision that would be.

My contractions were feeling pretty intense, but since their length and frequency wasn't consistent, I was hesitant to go to the hospital. I considered going by the clinic to get checked by the midwives before showing up at the hospital. Ultimately, we decided to go straight to the hospital and use my being Group B Strep (GBS) positive as our excuse for showing up so early (they wanted me to have 8 hours of antibiotics prior to the delivery, but with Eliza we only had time for 6 hours of antibiotics). Mike dropped Eliza off at our friends' house and then came back home to get me. My mom, who planned to attend the delivery, said she would just stay home and we could give her a call later and tell her when she should join us. Instead, I suggested that she drive us to the hospital so that Mike could get out with me when we got to the hospital and she could go park the car. Another decision that proved to be very important.

The car ride to the hospital was bumpier than I ever remember it being. My mom drove the speed limit the whole way there and admired all the old houses along the route. I was a classic impatient pregnant lady in labor. My contractions were pretty close together and I felt more pressure than I had at home. We had to drive around the hospital a time and a half in order to find the emergency drop-off spot. Mike ran in and brought me out a super-sized wheelchair, then whisked me away into the maze of the hospital. I had my eyes closed as he drove me around in what felt like circles. After a few wrong turns, we finally arrived at labor and delivery on the tenth floor at about 12:30.

I was so grateful and impressed that I was taken immediately to my very own labor and delivery room. Mike had called ahead and let them know we were on our way, but I still expected being put in a low-priority triage room and being asked a bunch of questions while I waited for someone to find time to check me. I opened my eyes long enough to see that our room looked like the presidential suite. By the time Mike put a gown on me, the midwife who was on call was in to check me. The check seemed to take longer than normal and I felt her hand move all around inside me. I was preparing to hear that I was only 3 or 4 centimeters dilated, but instead she I was nearly complete, at 9 centimeters. She told me that the last bit of cervix would melt away in no time, so as soon as I felt the urge to push I was welcome to go for it. I was shocked and excited.

I was also feeling a little frantic. I wanted to get the video camera set up, show the midwife our birth plan, and show my mom how to use our camera, oh wait, my mom wasn't even there yet. She was parking the car. Thankfully, she made it up with five minutes to spare. The midwife asked a few questions about this pregnancy and past birth experiences, since she didn't have time to get my charts. I told her that my last baby was big and that I had pushed for about 45 minutes with her. I told her I was GBS positive, though I knew that antibiotics were out of the question now. The nurse tried to put in a hep-lock, in case I needed an IV later (you have a higher risk for hemorrhaging with big babies, apparently), but was unsuccessful. The midwife was very sweet and read through our list of birth preferences. Mike laughed a little as he handed it to her, because half of it was no longer applicable.

My water didn't break until the very last moment. As I felt the gush of water, I also felt the baby's head move down. I knew he was on his way out and I said so. The midwife listened and lifted the sheet covering me. I reminded everyone that I wanted to take it slow and push on my own, rather than do any "purple pushing." After a contraction's-worth (less than a minute) of "breathing down" Baby Bean was all the way out. It all happened so fast. It is amazing to feel the baby's head, then body move through you. I tried to describe it to Mike, but it's impossible to put into words.

The midwife placed the baby on my abdomen, as we had requested in our Birth Preferences. Then they let him stay there, which was wonderful. We couldn't stop staring at him and smiling. He looked just like Eliza did when she was born. For an hour we just cuddled and talked and smiled at Bean. We waited until the cord stopped pulsating, then Mike got to cut it. All the newborn procedures were delayed until we were ready for them. Bean had his first meal and seemed to already have a knack for opening wide and latching on nicely. Mike and I finished our lunch, PBJs that my mom had made for us at home just before we decided it was time to go to the hospital.

Caleb was born at 12:52, just over 20 minutes after we arrived. It is a little scary to think of how close we were to having him at home or in the car. I really had no idea how far along I was (that's why I was scripting my admittance plea speech in the car). My entire labor with Eliza from the first contraction to delivery was about 24 hours, with about 10 hours of active/intense labor, 6 hours of it in the hospital. With Caleb, it was 12 hours from the first contraction to delivery, with about 5 hours of active/intense labor, 22 minutes of it in the hospital. I attribute much of the speed of labor to the way I learned to handle contractions in HypnoBirthing. When you feel and focus on the pain of contractions, your body tenses up and fights against what the contraction is trying to coomplish, making it much less effective at doing what it's supposed to do. When you can get your body to fully relax, you actually help each contraction to be more effective at opening up your cervix and moving the baby down the birth path. It definitely takes practice though. I was pleased with the speed of things with Eliza, and with more practice, things were even faster with Caleb, though I'm not sure I want to continue decreasing my times so drastically with future babies.

All our little decisions had made a big difference. I'm so grateful that Mike skipped out on orientation when he did, that my mom came with us to the hospital and that she drove so Mike could go in with me. I'm glad we left when we did and that we went straight to the hospital. I really appreciate that the hospital didn't make us jump through any hoops before admitting us. We feel so blessed. Everything turned out just perfect.

Well, almost everything. The spare batteries for our camera were bad, and of course the batteries in the camera died after 3 shots. If we had had more time at the hospital, we could have easily gotten more from home (4 miles away). Thankfully my mom had her camera, so we were able to get some delivery room pictures. Also, per my request, Mike set up the video camera on the tripod (I really wanted to watch the birth after the fact), but because of the rush, it happened to be aimed right at the place where the midwife sat at the foot of my bed. We also didn't have a chance to show my mom where it was, so it is mostly a short video of people's backs with a labor soundtrack starring me. Oh well.

The recovery is already much easier than with Eliza. This time I tore just a little along the scar left from when Eliza was born. Thankfully, with Caleb it was just the top layer of skin that tore, instead of all the layers of muscle like with Eliza.

We are so happy that Caleb is here safe and sound. Eliza is loving him a lot. She thinks he is her baby. She is very free with her hugs and kisses and he seems to be receiving them well. She gets a little perplexed when he cries (none of her other babies have that problem). I'm sure there will be lots of fun new adventures ahead of us, so stay tuned!

Baby Caleb

Mommy, Daddy, and Baby

Big Sister and Baby Brother





Eliza is most often seen smothering her baby brother (with love).